Bihar: GST on electric car battery chargers reduced to 5%

PATNA: Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi said on Sunday that the goods and service tax (GST) council has reduced the GST on electric cars and their battery chargers to 5% on the special initiative of the Bihar government to promote the use of electric cars in the state to combat air pollution and global warming.

To start it, CM Nitish Kumar had arrived at the state legislature premises on Thursday in an electric car rented out to the state government by Tata Motors for a fee of Rs22,500 per month. When fully charged, the electric car concerned would cover 142 kms. In the open market, the price of the electric car concerned is Rs12 lakh.

Modi said the state government would procure one electric car each for six departments at the state headquarters at the same rental. He said the day the CM arrived at the state legislature premises, the state government had reduced the road tax by 50% to promote and popularize electric cars. It worked positively and the GST on the battery chargers was reduced to 5% against the previous 18%. Similarly, the GST on electric cars has been reduced to 5% from the existing 12%.

On Thursday, transport secretary Sanjay Agarwal had said the Tata Motors would install 30 public charging stations (PCSs) at Patna. A person using the electric car could also charge the battery of the electric car at his home, but that would take four hours while the time to charge the battery at a PCS would be maximum 45 minutes.

Rakesh Pratap, regional head of Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), an undertaking of the Union power ministry, said the power of the battery would be 16.KW and on one charge, the AC-fitted electric car would cover 142km. Even the government employees could get the electric car on the rental of Rs22,500 per month. The battery life would be 15 years and would have 2% per annum efficiency loss.